Sowing Chaos (II)

KIEV/BERLIN |
11/27/2017
| ukraine

11/27/2017

KIEV/BERLIN
(Own report) - In an Italian TV documentary on the February 20, 2014 Maidan massacre, serious accusations were made against several politicians in Ukraine, including influential politicians, who are Germany's cooperation partners. In the documentary, three Georgians, incriminating themselves for their own participation, report that some of the leaders of the protests, who are today members of Kiev's parliament, had supplied weapons to the snipers, who, at the time, indiscriminately killed policemen and demonstrators. Officially, this massacre is still being attributed to Ukrainian repressive organs or to unspecified Russians. The Georgians also report that the current speaker of the parliament, Andriy Parubiy, was often seen in the hotel, from where the snipers were firing that day. As "Maidan Commander," Parubiy had been in charge of controlling armed gangs on that square. The man, whose real role at the time remains unclear, was a guest at a conference held by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and a speaker at NATO events.

Escalation Strategy

The Italian Canale 5 TV channel recently aired a documentary on the February 20, 2014 Maidan massacre [1] that focuses on the testimonies of three Georgians reporting on the Maidan protests and the escalation of violence in February. The three Georgians, who had had military training - and no personal relationship to the demonstrators in Kiev - were recruited in the Georgian capital Tbilisi in mid-January 2014 and flown to Ukraine. One of the Georgians explains that he had been chosen because of his sniper skills. According to the reports, their main job was to provoke the Ukrainian repressive forces into brutally cracking down on the demonstrators. The three Georgians had their role to play in the strategy of escalation, previously agreed upon by the leaders of the protest - including Vitali Klitschko, the protégé of Germany’s foreign policy,[2] and today's mayor of Kiev. "I think we have paved the road for a more radical escalation of the situation," one can read in an email dated January 9, 2014, which later circulated online and is attributed to Klitschko. "Is it not high time to continue with more resolute actions?" the author of the email asks.[3]

Furnished Weapons

In the documentary, the three Georgians describe how they had been positioned on the morning of February 20, 2014 - one in the Conservatory, two in the Ukraina Hotel, both buildings adjacent to the Maidan. The first shots that day were fired from the Conservatory killing policemen. Later that day, snipers in the Ukraina Hotel deliberately killed demonstrators. With their reports, the Georgians confirm what has been known for years from two other snipers, who had also incriminated themselves for their participation in the massacre. (german-foreign-policy.com reported.[4]) The snipers had acted on orders of government opponents with the aim of sowing chaos and thus initiating President Yanukovych’s overthrow. According to the three Georgians, Serhiy Pashynsky, at that time member of the parliamentary opposition, was playing a key role. He had furnished the snipers in the Conservatory and in the Ukraina Hotel with the necessary weapons. This testimony is confirmed by documentary video footage showing Pashynsky shielding the transport of a sniper rifle through the middle of the demonstration during the escalation of violence. Following the putsch in late February 2014, Pashynsky became the head of Kiev's Presidential Administration and, as member of the governing People’s Front Party, is today presiding over the Rada Committee on National Security and Defense.

On the Maidan Stage

According to the three Georgians, Volodymyr Parasyuk was also involved in delivering weapons. Parasyuk had been the leader of one of the fascist combat units on the Maidan. Following the putsch, he had first participated in one of the ultra rightwing irregular militias (the Battalion Dnipro) in the East Ukraine civil war, before he was elected to parliament in October 2014. On the evening of February 21, 2014 - the day following the massacre - it was Parasyuk, who, from the stage at the Maidan, called out for President Viktor Yanukovych to step down immediately or he would be overthrown at gunpoint. Parasyuk made a name for himself with this threat. Videos depict him standing right beside Vitali Klitschko on the stage. Berlin had maintained regular contact to Klitschko at the time. Yanukovych - fully aware of the massacre - probably took Parasyuk's threat seriously and immediately fled Kiev.

National Hero of Ukraine

Their testimonies are probably most incriminating for the fourth Georgian, Mamuka Mamulashvili, who, they say, had recruited the three Georgians in Tbilisi, and - together with a US soldier under the assumed name of Brian Christopher Boyenger - brought them to Kiev. Mamulashvili had been a military advisor to the long-time Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, from whose entourage the three snipers had been recruited for the Kiev mission. Following the putsch, Mamulashvili fought with the "Georgian Legion" in the East Ukrainian civil war, for which he was officially awarded the honorary title of "National Hero of Ukraine." Saakashvili, on the other hand, who fled to the United States after his presidency in 2013 to avoid standing trial in Georgia, had always supported the Maidan protests and in 2015, began his new political career in the now pro-western Ukraine - first as presidential advisor, then as Governor of Odessa and - since his rift with President Poroshenko - as an opposition politician seeking the overthrow the government. In late 2003, Saakashvili had also come to power in Georgia through a putsch, which, in turn, had served as a model for the Maidan.

The Commander of the Maidan

The Georgians' accusations also implicate, at least indirectly, the "Commander of the Maidan," Andriy Parubiy. Parubiy comes from the Ukrainian fascist scene. In the early 1990s he was one of the founders of the extreme right-wing Social National Party of Ukraine. Since 1996, he was the leader of its militarist street fighting subsidiary "Patriot of Ukraine." Following his retirement from the party, this experienced protest activist became one of the main organizers of the 2004 "Orange Revolution." In 2013, he assumed the same function at the Maidan, where he was responsible for none other than security and the "self-defense units," which were often made up of heavily armed thugs. In the Italian TV documentary, it was reported that Parubiy was going in and out of Hotel Ukraina, from where numerous deadly shots were being fired. Parubiy, claims that the hotel from which these shots were being fired - which was firmly under the Maidan demonstrators' control - had been taken over "by snipers who arrived from Russia and who were controlled by Russia."[5] Parubiy, who, according to former US Vice President Joe Biden, was conferring with the US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt throughout the upheavals almost on an hourly basis, has never really had his role in the putsch explained. Following the putsch, he was first appointed to the post of head of the National Security and Defense Council. Since April 14, 2016 he has been serving as President of Ukraine's Parliament.

Berlin's Cooperation Partner

Thanks to this position, Parubiy can now serve as a cooperation partner for German foreign policy. He has headed, for example, a delegation of Ukrainian parliamentarians, who, from May 22 - 25, 2016 were in Cadenabbia, Italy with CDU/CSU parliamentarians at the CDU-affiliated Konrad Adenauer Foundation's Educational Center. A fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) and Matthias Lüttenberg, Head of the Russia and Ukraine Department of the German Chancellery made presentations. At this meeting, it was agreed that Parubiy would visit the Bundestag in the summer of 2016.[6] As the then German President Joachim Gauck participated at the Ukrainian state ceremony in memory of the massacre of nearly 34,000 Jews in Babi Yar, on September 29, 2016, he was commemorating - at the side of Parubiy - the victims of the German war criminals and their Ukrainian collaborators. In late May 2017, Parubiy gave a talk at the spring session of NATO's Parliamentary Assembly in Tbilisi, where German parliamentarians were also participating. When NATO's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg addressed the Ukrainian Parliament on July 10, 2017, he discussed with the Maidan's former arms supplier, Serhiy Pashynsky - and then met with the former Maidan Commander Parubiy for a private conversation. What they talked about is not known.